Page images
PDF
EPUB

Of course nothing of this kind could occur in the present day! "Nous avons changé tout cela!"

I hope the professional candour of the above will be duly appreciated. It might perhaps have been more complete had I myself been a party to the consultation! But to be serious:

Is it not worth consideration, whether the cases cited do not justify an experiment of the effect of a sudden shock in torpid insanity or dementia?

381

CHAPTER XXVI.

DR. BRIGHAM ON THE EFFECT OF MENTAL CULTIVATION.-MIND AND SOUL.GRADUAL EXTINCTION OF THE FACULTIES BY PRESSURE ON THE BRAIN.RESTORATION ON REMOVING IT.-SUMMARY OF THE ARGUMENT ON THE DISTINCTION BETWEEN MIND AND SOUL.

IN a very sensible and judicious little work, entitled "Remarks on the Influence of Mental Cultivation and Mental Excitement upon Health, by Dr. Brigham of Hartford, Connecticut," there are some excellent observations on the injurious effect of too early cultivation of the mind. In proving (what it can only be necessary to prove to the public, and not to anatomists) that the brain is the sole organ of the mind, he remarks, "If the mind could be deranged, independently of any bodily disease, such a possibility would tend to destroy the hope of its immortality." This argument will probably have some weight with the religious public. Throughout most of the reasonings on this subject by writers, and especially theological writers, the mind is confounded with the soul. The former, every anatomist knows to be a set of functions of the brain-differing only in number and degree from the intellect of animals, but the soul is a very different topic for consideration. If mind and soul were convertible terms, there would be an end of all discussion.

"Teachers of youth," says Dr. Brigham, " in general appear to think that in exciting the mind they are

exercising something totally independent of the body— some mysterious entity, whose operations do not require any corporeal assistance. They endeavour to accelerate to the utmost the movements of an extremely delicate machine, while, most unfortunately, they are totally ignorant or regardless of its dependence on the body. They know that its action and its power may be both increased for a while by the application of a certain force; but when the action becomes deranged, and the power destroyed, they know not what is the difficulty, nor how it can be remedied. Fortunately they do not attempt to remedy it themselves, but call in the physician, who, if he affords any relief at all, does it by operating on a material organ. If medical men entertained the same views as the public, they would, in attempting to restore a deranged mind, entirely overlook the agency of the body, and instead of using means calculated to effect a change of action in the brain, would rely solely upon arguments and appeals to the understanding; for, if the mind may be cultivated independently of the body, why may not its disorders. be removed without reference to the body?"

To desire that a curer of insanity act upon the mind independently of the body is to take your watch to the artist and tell him not to touch the works, as it is the motion only that is wrong. It is true, we cannot comprehend the nature of motion; that of the watch is composed of elasticity, momentum, and so forth; but we know nothing of the essence of elasticity and momentum. We do know, however, that a certain perfection of parts is necessary for correct motion; and an experienced artist, who understands the anatomy of a watch, can often tell, before he opens the case, the

nature of the cause that interferes with the desired regularity; while, at other times, he could know nothing without examination of the internal structure. So the physician. He knows absolutely nothing of the nature of mind; only that it is the result of certain machinery when perfect; but he does not confound this with the immortal soul, of which he also can know nothing but by revelation.

Is it not contrary to analogy, contrary to all we know and infer of the designs of Providence, to believe that the Creator's best and most glorious gift to man (as) far as this world is concerned), the mind, should have been created liable to mutilation by the slightest accident; that when, in man, a bony case has been provided to contain the precious instrument by which it is manifested, and a development given to the organization of that instrument, which endows the animal with the highest privileges and rank in mundane creation can it, I say, be conceived, that the functions thus formed, and thus protected, would be left to one single organ, so that the slightest casualty might deprive man of his guide and protector? The inferior faculties of our nature have two organs, to insure the due performance of inferior functions in case of accident or disease. I cannot think that the possession of an immortal soul, to render man a responsible being, is compatible with the existence of only one organ for the exercise of its subordinate agent, the mind.

The distinction beween mind and soul, though clear to one who believes that a Revelation has been given to us, is so incomprehensible by the unaided reason, that it has been a subject of dispute from the commencement of history. "From the time of Xenophon down

wards" (as remarked by the writer, of whose work I have spoken as the direct incentive to this attempt) "it was held, that men had two souls in a sort of antagonism, and that it was the due equilibrium between these which constituted his perfection."

To suppose the soul to be immediately implicated in, and dependent on, the functions of the brain, whose faculties may be either complete, imperfect, or annihilated, seems a contradiction. I should be sorry to speak with levity on so serious a subject, but the illus tration I am about to give is not intended irreverently. Suppose a person afflicted with chorea (or St. Vitus's dance) to have an attack of convulsive movements, and overset the table every time he sat down to breakfast, would it be reasonable to infer that there was some mysterious connexion between chorea and broken teacups? The soul, as described to us by divines, or the authority of revelation, is one, complete, and immortal; were it identical with mind, it would be sometimes wise, sometimes foolish-sometimes energetic, sometimes indolent sometimes acute, sometimes fatuous and imbecile-sometimes courageous, and sometimes cowardly; its qualities changed by a few glasses of ale or wine -such we know is the mind. Surely such things cannot be predicted of the immortal soul, which might have an organ of thought in every part of the body without destroying its oneness. It is the confounding of two things so essentially distinct as mind and soul, which forms the same obstacle to our progress in the management of insanity and mental disturbance, that the belief in the fixedness of the earth opposed to the reception of the doctrines of Galileo. The grey substance pervading the brain and nerves, now called neurine, is

« PreviousContinue »